Content search is normally performed based on a word search—i.e., a comparison of terms in a search query with terms in a document. Certain variations on, and/or enhancements to, the word search have been developed. For example, page-rank attempts to rate the relative importance of a web page based on existing links to the web page, and this assessment of importance can be taken into account in presenting the search results. Moreover, certain localized searches take geographic factors into account.
These existing techniques are based on the notion that a web page, or other content, can be understood primarily from the words used in the content, the number of links to the content, and/or the geographic location to which the content relates. Moreover, these techniques assume that a query can be matched to content based on keywords used in the query and/or a geographic cue associated with the query. However, a consideration of the broader context to which the query and content relate may produce different search results than these existing techniques.